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Friday Stream of Consciousness – 77

Sorry for the tardiness of this post. I’m at the Catalyst West conference and thus was providentially hindered.

If your church doesn’t have a sufficient budget for conferences and continued learning/team building opportunities for your staff…step it up. This is vital to staff chemistry, morale, recalibration, and birthing big ideas.

We were informed at the conference that Dallas Willard, who was scheduled to speak, was in the hospital in critical condition. When I heard the news, I was filled with grief. Though I don’t know him personally (though we have met a few times), my life and ministry have been shaped by his writings than those of any other person. I pray a speedy recovery for him.

John Ortberg (a good friend of Willard’s who pinch-hit for him) said he once consulted Dallas during a difficult point in his ministry. He asked Dallas Willard what to do. He paused for a bit, and responded, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” That’s a good word.

I don’t care what you say, it isn’t a waste to just lick the frosting off of anything.

Sometimes, people who seem like they feel very little feel the most.

Hearing Jim Collins speak at Catalyst reminded of how much I’ve liked everything he’s ever written. Great by Choice and Good to Great are my two favorites. He said he likes “How the Mighty Fall” best. There is some really good stuff in there as well…

Especially the chapter on “Hubris born of success.”

I wish I could really play an instrument well. If I could play one instrument well, I’d pick the piano.

A close second would be the drums.

I have many pacifist friends and readers of this blog…some who have taken to the twittersphere or Facebook urging people not to use inflammatory rhetoric. As you are urging people not to be mean or use ugly rhetoric after the bombings, let’s not make victims of the perpetrators. Jesus used a lot of harsh rhetoric, and I have no doubt some would be reserved for terrorists who murder innocent children and adults. Let people grieve as they must without trying to fix them—and remember who the real victims are. Having said that, encouraging people not to return evil for evil is good.

Speaking of pacifism, props to the Dodgers for not beaning anyone in the recent Padres series in retaliation for the Greinke-Quentin incident. Well done.

I think John Ortberg may be my favorite preacher alive.

At lunch I listening to a ministry job interview going on next to me. The guy doing the selling of the position just said, “I know you may not like _____ (the Sr. Pastor), but that’s not going to be much of a problem.” OH REALLY.

Jim Collins said it right here at Catalyst: “Never confuse personality with leadership.”

Another pearl from Collins: “In an organization, all problems are ultimately a leadership problem.”

There is no way Kobe is retiring. He’ll be back, and so will Phil Jackson.

The Pepperdine Lectures are coming in a couple of weeks, and I can’t wait to teach this class. I’ll be talking about the leadership problem in Churches of Christ. Pepperdine is always one of my favorite weeks of the year.

As I typed that, Rainn Wilson (aka, Dwight Schrute), just encouraged us all to spend our entertainment dollars on good, moral entertainment instead of dirty stuff if we want to see more high quality stuff come out of Hollywood. Thanks, Dwight!

At Catalyst, we watched exclusive clips of a new movie on Noah starring Russell Crowe, Anthony Hopkins and others that’s in production. They look really good.

We all need to laugh more.

What’s on your mind this Friday?

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Dr. Tim Spivey is Lead Planter of New Vintage Church in San Diego, California. He is the author of numerous articles and one book, "Jesus: The Powerful Servant." A sought after speaker for events, Tim also serves as Adjunct Professor of Religion at Pepperdine University. Tim serves as a church consultant, and his writings are featured on ChurchLeaders.com, Church Executive magazine, Faith Village, Sermon Central, and Giving Rocket.